Mickey Kaus writes, “Has Big Hollywood made a single non-anti-US post-9/11 film I missed?”
I wish I could say Bill O’Reilly was wrong about Paul Greengrass’ Bourne Ultimatum being an anti-American film, but I saw it last weekend and O’Reilly’s right. It’s not just that the script plays on opposition to Bush anti-terror tactics–waterboarding, etc. Or that in a moment of calm hero Matt Damon utters maybe 15 of the 40 words he speaks in the film and explains that he’s simply trying to apologize for … well, the CIA’s sins, or maybe America’s. Just because you oppose waterboarding and believe the U.S. has a lot to apologize for doesn’t make you anti-American. The problem is the film is unredeemed by any sense that America or the American government ever stands for or does anything that is right. It is a big hit overseas. …
The film also made me feel guilty, because I watched Greengrass’ United 93 and left convinced it was a searing indictment of Bush’s behavior in hours after 9/11. (Air controllers spend much of the film trying to locate the AWOL President they can obtain an order to shoot down the hijacked jet.) I didn’t know anything about Greengrass, and the film looked like it had been based on actual records by a meticulously dispassionate observer. But Greengrass’ Bourne film undermines his credibility and retrospectively dissolves United 93’s anti-Bush power. I don’t trust anything the man makes. … P.S.: Has Big Hollywood made a single non-anti-US post-9/11 film I missed? I can’t remember one (aside from Team America: World Police, which was a cartoon).. … And don’t say World Trade Center. That passed up several potentially epic patriotic moments (e.g. the Dave Karnes story) in favor of a tribute to the fraternity of New York transit cops. … Next up: In the Valley of Elah, a well-made version of the Scott Beauchamp Story. … Is it the international market that makes our studios behave this way? I sense an underserved domestic niche.
No kidding.
Curiously, in Black Hawk Down and We Were Soldiers, war films whose principle photography was presumably completed just prior to 9/11 and released in early 2002, (after which Tinseltown would enter into a temporary holding pattern, before letting it all hang out) Hollywood seemed to have reached some sort of an accommodation with the American military. I wish I could find the quote–I think it was from James Bowman, maybe Rich Lowry, that while Hollywood’s never going to be pro-military, at least they’ve come around to treating the American soldier as a professional warrior, not a victim of jingoistic hawks.
But don’t worry, if there’s a President Obama or Hillary in 2009 and he or she decides we need to remain in the Middle East, Hollywood will be more than willing to turn on a dime. Again. Historically, the left has always been able to do smoother 180s than Tony Hawk, any day.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member